The publication was not only timely,--it was novel. Paine
founded a new school of pamphleteering. He was the first who wrote
politics for the million. The learned political dissertations of Junius
Brutus, Publius, or Philanglus were guarded in expression,
semi-metaphysical in theory, and Johnsonian in style. They were
relished by comparatively few readers; [1] but the shrewd illustrations
of "Common Sense," the homely force of its statements, and its concise
and muscular English stirred the mind of every class. Even Paine's
coarse epithets, "Common Ruffian," "Royal Brute of Britain," and the
like, which offended the taste of the leaders of the American
party,--for party-leaders were gentlemen in 1776,--had as much weight
with the rank-and-file as his arguments.
[Footnote 1: Compare, for instance, Judge Drayton's Independence Charge
to the Grand Jury of Charleston, delivered April 23, 1776, with "Common
Sense."]
Paine became suddenly famous. General Charles Lee said "that he burst
upon the world like Jove, in thunder." His acquaintance was sought by
all who were of the true faith in Independence; and when, soon
afterward, he visited New York, he carried with him letters from Dr.
Franklin and John Adams, introducing him to the principal residents "as
a citizen of the world, the celebrated author of 'Common Sense.
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